Eight days.
That is all it took to wipe away all of the goodwill that came from the Leafs getting past the first round for the first time in nearly two decades. Once Sam Reinhart scored the overtime winner to put the Panthers up 3-0 in the second round, it was a matter of when, not if, the Leafs would see their playoff aspirations end in disappointment. And for the fifth time since this era began, Toronto was sent packing in front of their home fans.
As the dust settles on another season of shortcomings in the spring, the Leafs simultaneously did and did not deserve to have the outcome they got in the second round.
Toronto got the bulk of the scoring chances and offensive zone time, which should have resulted in at least one instance of a game where they got more than two goals. Having said that, they made it too easy for the Panthers to execute their gameplan and Sergei Bobrovsky made more saves than both Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll could. It certainly did not help that Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares each combined for a goal on 67 shots in this series when just a few more could have made the difference. Now why does that last sentence sound familiar?
Much like the past seven years of this era of Leafs ho …

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Author: Michael Mazzei / The Leafs Nation